Preliminary experiments strongly indicate that the glycoprotein of vesicular stomatitis virus is specifically transported from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus in cell-free extracts prepared from virus-infected cells. This would be of considerable significance for cell biology, for it would finally make the challenging problems of intracellular recognition and transport, as well as the Golgi apparatus itself, amenable to the tools of the biochemist. We propose to fully document this novel finding with an integrated biochemical, electron microscopic autoradiographic, and genetic investigation of this cell-free system. We hope then to be able to exploit this system to begin to reveal the molecular mechanisms involved. Our studies will provide new insights into the normal mechanisms of intracellular transport used during secretion, and thus provide essential information for understanding the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis.